Bedřich Diviš Weber also known by the German form of his name, Friedrich Dionys (or Dionysius) Weber, was a Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

n composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and musicologist primarily remembered as the first Director of the Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...

, in whose foundation he played a leading role.

Weber studied philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 before turning his attention definitively to music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, studying under Abbe Vogler. He became an advocate for the music of Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 after meeting him in Prague, and his compositions bear evidence of this influence, being firmly rooted in that stylistic period. He was antagonistic towards the work of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

 and Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....

 (no relation), although an enthusiast for the work of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

. In 1832 he conducted the first performance of Wagner's Symphony in C major

Symphony in C major (Wagner)

Symphony in C major, WWV29, is one of two symphonies Richard Wagner wrote. The other being the incomplete, two movement Symphony in E major WWV35.- Form :The Symphony in C major is in four movements:* I. Sostenuto e maestoso - Allegro con brio...

, a student performance at the Prague Conservatory.

As Director of both the Conservatory and the Prague Organ School he effectively controlled higher musical education in the region so was arguably the most influential figure in the music of Prague at that time. He also wrote several music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

 textbooks considered important in their time.

Despite his conservative style he was happy to explore the possibilities of new instruments, such as his Variationen für das neu erfundene Klappenhorn (Variations for the newly invented keyed bugle). He was a skilled writer for brass instrument

Brass instrument

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...

s and had a particular interest in new developments; he was himself responsible for a form of chromatic French horn

His best known surviving work is probably the cantata Bohmens Erretung. He also composed an opera, König der Genien, in 1800, and his Variations for Trumpet and Orchestra followed his own experiments with keyed instruments, particularly his keyed horn.

In 1823-24, he was one of the 50 composers who composed a variation on a waltz by Anton Diabelli

Anton Diabelli

Anton Diabelli was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer of Italian descent. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations.-Early life:Diabelli was born in...

 for Vaterländischer Künstlerverein

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein was a collaborative musical publication or anthology, incorporating 83 variations for piano on a theme by Anton Diabelli, written by 51 composers living in or associated with Austria. It was published in two parts in 1823 and 1824, by firms headed by Diabelli. It...

.

One of his students, Joseph Kail, introduced the keyed horn to Vienna and went on to develop the double piston Vienna valve horn

Vienna horn

The Vienna horn is a type of musical horn used primarily in Vienna, Austria, for playing orchestral or classical music. It is used throughout Vienna, including the Vienna Philharmonic and Wiener Staatsoper.-History and description:...

. It is reported that in 1828 a certain Herr Chlum played the Variations for Trumpet and Orchestra on a chromatic trumpet of Kail's invention, presumably the valve trumpet, making this work the earliest surviving example of such music.